I am a music nerd. I don’t really know where it came from. My parents like music but neither of them play. It’s not like a came from a very musical family. Yet from my first tapes and CDs that I would play on repeat, I knew that music had to have a prominent place in my life.
I would take the bus downtown on weekends to spend hours in music stores staring at upcoming show posters and buying nothing. My favourite was Music Baron on Portage. They had three floors including a basement section called The Cellar that featured punk, metal, ska, reggae, oi, thrash… you know, the good stuff.
There was the big orange and purple A & B sound at the corner of Portage and Donald where the ALT Hotel now stands. Another multi-level music haven. Or the used stores in Osborne like Into the Music and Music Trader and later Disc-Go-Round, where I eventually worked. If all else failed there were always the mall music stores like HMV, or Sam the Record Man.
With music chain stores shuttering their businesses across the country and the hipness of record swap-meets rising, I think this documentary comes at the perfect time.
That is the trailer for a locally produced documentary called New & Used: Winnipeg. It features local musicians and some familiar faces for those of us who haunted Winnipeg’s music stores in the 80s, 90s and early aughts.
The film debuts March 11 at the Gas Station Theatre. It will also be available on MTS TV’s “Stories From Home” section of their Video on Demand feature. You can also read an article about the topic here.
I also write a blog last year on some recurring record shows in Winnipeg and what to expect if you’ve never been. P.S. Rockin’ Richards, the city’s largest, is just around the corner on March 19th.
